Mrs Caponi, who was very well known for her beautiful embroideries, opened her first Florentine home linen store in 1967 and ever since she has been representing a reference point in that field. I especially stopped to admire the tablecloths and I had the chance to see many different kinds, all of them made with precious fabrics, embroidered and inlaid. Mrs Caponi provides tailor-made table cloths, in accordance with the colours of the customer’s home or of the dinner – service. For an elegant table I like the white tablecloths with white embroideries or with laces; on the other hand for a daily table I would choose a white tablecloth with coloured embroideries, to be combined with a simpler dinner-service.

I go on with my search for the cutlery: I walk down through via de’ Tornabuoni and, before reaching the Santa Trinita square, turn on the left in via di Porta Rossa. Here I met my match: at 99r there’s the Pampaloni store, whose windows let us see a part of  the large range of silver  cutlery that you can find inside. I’m really impressed by the originality of the products of this brand, not scared by the idea of using a traditional material, such as silver, to make new and bizarre stuff. Among the most strange things there’s a collection called Bichierografia, including cutlery as well as glass, bottle and dinner-sets. This collection was born after the graphic works of a Roman engraver and painter who lived between the end of the 16^th century and the beginning of the 17^th century. His name was Giovanni Maggi and he tried to interpret the  taste for the bizarre, typical of his time: he designed extravagant table services: forks, knives and spoons with snake-shaped handles, goblets with human leg-shaped feet, crystal glasses similar to complicate geometrical  compositions: I found them so spectacular! Having to choose the cutlery I would  be undecided between the Anglia or Troia collections, while I love the salt and pepper set from the Anakronistica collection. The owners of this brand have decided to lay the tables of their firm canteen with their own products; they have opened the canteen to the public as a restaurant in order to allow the common people to see how an elegant table set can make even the humblest and the most austere place an amazing dining room

L'articolo The art of the table in Florence (2) sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

My tour starts in via de’ Rondinelli, continues in piazza Antinori and, through via de’ Tornabuoni, ends in via di Porta Rossa.

My first stop is at the flagship store of an historical brand of Florence, the Richard Ginori, established in 1735 by the marquis Carlo Ginori as Manifattura di Doccia and renamed in 1896 Richard Ginori as a consequence of the buy-out by the businessman Augusto Richard from Milan. The brand has a long- lasting, complicate,  and sometimes economically unhappy history. Anyway in 2013 it has been bought out by the Gucci group. As a consequence of that the store in via de’ Rondinelli 17r has been completely renewed and refurbished: in the modern store they have re-created the different rooms of a house. You will find the kitchen, the dining and the living rooms, a winter garden equipped of porcelain cups, plates, vases, bottles, pitchers, jugs, bowls, … If I had to choose, I might have some difficulties: anyway I really love the so-called “Italian Orient” collection: they make me think about the 18^th century productions renewed using very charming colours. I have to mention even the collections designed by Giò Ponti: the vases and plates decorated with women, architectures and mythological figures or with the chains. To visit this store really allows to enjoy the history of a brand, which from the 18^th century to nowadays makes our tables looking  beautiful with sober or coloured objects, always keeping them refined and elegant.

In the next days I’ll tell the rest of my tour!

L'articolo The Florentine art of setting the table sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

San Zenobi procession.

On that day the bishop’s corpse was moved from S. Lorenzo (Florence’s old Cathedral) to the church of Santa Reparata, whise remains are now under S. Maria del Fiore.  Legand has it that during the procession, the corpse touched an bare elm-tree which immediately blossomed.  A column was erected on the spot to commemorate the event.

According to other sources, the body was moved not in 429 A.D. but towards the end of the 19th century.  The San Zenobi column which can be admired today bears an elm-tree twig and is not the original one which was destroyed during the 1333 Arno flood.

A San Zenobi walk will take you to some beautiful museums and landscapes starting from the column itself and moving into the Cathedral, where the spoils of the saint are still preserved, under altar.

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo could be your next step, where the statues of the old cathedral façade are preserved among which the Virgin vith child between San Zenobi and Santa Reparata. The Saint is represented in two more works in the same museum: the Dossale di San Zenobi is also preserved in the museum, where Zenobi is represented in the centre sitting on a sumptuous desk and a terracotta lunette by Andrea Della Robbia.

Final step of this itinerary has to be Borgo Albizi, where San Zenobi is said to have worked on of  his miracles: the resurrection of the child of a noblewoman, described by Botticelli in his “History of San Zenobi” tables preserved between New York, London and Dresden.

L'articolo San Zenobi column sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

Till 1749 in Florence they followed the so-called Ab Incarnatione Calendar, which means that the New Year’s Day corresponded to the Incarnation day when, according to the Catholic Church, Mary accepted her divine pregnancy. If we go 9 months backward from Christmas (Jesus’ Birth), we reach March 25^th that is at the same time Annunciation and Incarnation Day and, so far, the Florence New Year’s Day.

The bond between Florence and this tradition is still very strong; in fact, although the city has conformed to the common calendar,  even this year the city historical cortege will be organized. It starts from the Palagio di Parte Guelfa, develops downtown and finishes in piazza Santissima Annunziata, right in front of the sanctuary dedicated to the Annunciation.

The meeting time to follow the cortege is at 10.20 a.m. : the local authorities will reach the Santissima Annunziata at 11a.m. in order to leave a flowery present in the Sacra Effigie Chapel. In this chapel they still preserve a miraculous fresco: according to the tradition in 1252 the painter Bartolomeo was charged to paint an Annunciation. He fell asleep without having finished, because he wasn’t able to paint a face fit for Mary. At his awaking he saw the accomplished work: an angel had come to help him. From some witnesses dating back to 1341, we know that an altar was built in front of the fresco; and some tabernacles reproducing the same image had been made throughout the city, such as the one in the piazzetta del Capitolo or the one underneath the arch standing between via Santa Margherita and via del Corso.

The celebrations for the Florentine New Year’s Day will not finish with the historical cortege, but they will be continued  during the night at the Teatro Verdi with a charity concert starting at 8.30 p.m. and during the whole week (March 25^th – 31^st) when everyone will be allowed to visit the Signoria Palace from 9 a.m. to midnight.

L'articolo The beginning of Florence’s own New Year. sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.